1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for adding predetermined information to an input image, and a method and a storage medium therefor.
2. Related Background Art
There is conventionally known a technology for adding, to an input image, the manufacturing number of a copying apparatus which is used for processing such image, as disclosed for example in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 5-244389. Such technology is effective in tracing the origin of the image from a reproduced image.
On the other hand, there have recently been proposed various memory formats for storing image information.
In such memory formats, however, there has not sufficiently been considered a method of adding certain information in a manner inconspicuous or invisible to the human eyes. For this reason, it has not been possible, for example in case of storing plural image data files of mutually different resolution levels representing a same input image, to add the information associated with the image data in a suitable method.
Also it has not been possible, for example in case of dividing the input image into plural areas and storing the image information in the unit of such divided area, to add the information associated with the image information in a suitable method.
Also in the conventional formats for image storage, in case of adding certain information in a manner inconspicuous or invisible to the human eyes, there has not sufficiently been considered the data format to be taken for the image including such added information. For this reason, the added information may be deteriorated or may become unreproducible for example by the influence of subsequent data compression.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, a method and a storage medium therefor, capable of individually or entirely solving the drawbacks mentioned in the foregoing.
Another object of the present invention is, under the above-mentioned object, to enable, in storing image information with a predetermined image storage format, the addition of predetermined information to the input image with a method suitable for such storage format.
Still another object of the present invention is, under the above-mentioned object, to enable, in adding predetermined information to the input image, the storage of image taking such addition of information into consideration.
The above-mentioned objects can be attained, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, by an image processing apparatus comprising:
a division unit for dividing an input image into plural areas;
a selection unit for selecting the storage format of the image data representing the input image in the unit of each of the divided areas;
conversion means for converting the image data into the above-mentioned storage format; and
addition means for adding predetermined information to the input image in the unit of each of the divided areas.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, a method and a storage medium therefor, having a novel function or a novel mode of adding information to the given image information.
Still other objects of the present invention, and the features thereof, will become fully apparent from the following description of embodiments to be taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.